LOWELL 

Liberty  and  Disciple. 


LB 

2325 

L62 


LIBERTY  AND  DISCIPLINE 

A  Talk  to  Freshmen 

by 

A.  LAWRENCE  LOWELL 


LIBERTY  AND  DISCIPLINE 


A  Talk  to  Freshmen 


An  Address  Delivered  to  the  Freshman  Class  of  Yale  College 

October  15th,   1915,   on  the  Ralph  Hill  Thomas 

Memorial  Lectureship  Foundation 


» 

A.    LAWRENCE   LOWELL 

President  of  Harvard   University 


NEW  HAVEN 

YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
MDCCCCXVI 


COPYRIGHT,  1916 
BY  YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 


FIRST  PUBLISHED,  JULY,  1916 


L1BRABY 

I'MVlJ'.SriY  Oi-'  CALIFORNIA 
SAMA  BARBARA 


LIBERTY  AND   DISCIPLINE 
By  A.  LAWRENCE  LOWELL 

WE  are  living  in  the  midst  of  a  terrific  war  in  which 
each  side  casts  upon  the  other  the  blame  for  causing 
the  struggle;  but  in  which  each  gives  the  same  reason 
for  continuing  it  to  the  bitter  end — that  reason  being  the 
preservation  from  destruction  of  the  essential  principle  of  its 
own  civilization.  One  side  claims  to  be  fighting  for  the 
liberty  of  man;  the  other  for  a  social  system  based  on 
efficiency  and  maintained  by  discipline.  Of  course  the 
difference  is  one  of  degree.  No  one  believes  in  permitting 
every  man  to  do  whatever  he  pleases,  no  matter  how  it  may 
injure  his  neighbor  or  endanger  the  community;  and  no 
country  refuses  all  freedom  of  action  to  the  individual.  But 
although  the  difference  is  only  of  degree  and  of  emphasis,  it 
is  none  the  less  real.  Our  own  people  have  always  asserted 
their  devotion  to  the  principle  of  personal  liberty,  and  in 
some  ways  they  have  carried  it  farther  than  any  other  nation. 
It  is  not,  therefore,  useless  to  compare  the  two  principles  that 
we  may  understand  their  relative  advantages,  and  perceive 
the  dangers  of  liberty  and  the  conditions  of  its  fruitfulness. 
Americans  are  more  familiar  with  the  benefits  of  discipline 
in  fact,  than  conscious  of  them  in  theory.  Anyone  who  should 
try  to  manage  a  factory,  a  bank,  a  railroad,  a  ship,  a  military 
company,  or  an  athletic  team,  on  the  principle  of  having 
every  employee  or  member  of  the  organization  take  what- 
ever part  in  the  work,  and  do  it  in  whatever  way  seemed  best 
in  his  own  eyes,  would  come  to  sudden  grief  and  be  merci- 
lessly laughed  at.  We  all  know  that  any  enterprise  can  be 
successful  only  if  there  is  co-ordination  of  effort,  or  what 
for  short  we  call  team  play ;  and  that  this  can  happen  only  if 
the  nature  of  each  man's  work,  and  the  way  he  is  to  perform 


4  LIBERTY  AND  DISCIPLINE 

it,  is  arranged  with  a  view  to  the  whole,  so  that  each  part 
fitting  into  its  place  contributes  its  proper  share  to  the  total 
result.  Experience  has  taught  us  that  the  maximum  effi- 
ciency is  attained  where  the  team  play  is  most  nearly  perfect, 
and  therefore  the  subordination  of  the  individual  to  the 
combined  action  is  most  nearly  complete.  Then  there  is  the 
greatest  harmony  of  action,  and  the  least  waste  by  friction  or 
working  at  cross  purposes.  But  everyone  is  aware  that  such 
a  condition  does  not  come  about  of  itself.  Men  do  not  fit 
into  their  places  in  a  team  or  organization  spontaneously. 
Until  they  have  become  experts  they  do  not  appreciate  the 
relation  of  their  particular  work  to  the  plan  as  a  whole ;  and 
even  when  they  have  become  familiar  with  the  game  or  the 
industry,  they  are  apt  to  overestimate  their  own  part  in  it,  or 
disagree  about  the  best  method  of  attaining  the  result. 
Everyone  likes  to  rule,  and  when  Artemus  Ward  suggested 
that  all  the  men  in  a  regiment  should  be  made  Brigadier 
Generals  at  once  to  avoid  jealousy,  he  touched  a  familiar 
weakness  in  human  nature.  He  was  not  obliged  to  explain 
the  joke,  because  no  one  fails  to  see  the  absurdity  of  having 
everybody  in  command.  But  that  would  be  exactly  the 
situation  if  nobody  were  in  command.  If  there  is  to  be  a 
plan  for  combined  action,  somebody  must  have  power  to 
decide  what  that  plan  shall  be ;  and  if  the  part  of  every  per- 
former is  to  be  subordinated  to  the  common  plan,  somebody 
must  have  authority  to  direct  the  action  of  each  in  conformity 
with  the  plan.  Moreover,  that  authority  must  have  some 
means  of  carrying  its  directions  into  effect.  It  must  be 
maintained  by  discipline ;  either  by  forcing  those  who  do  not 
play  their  parts  rightly  to  conform  to  the  general  plan,  or 
by  eliminating  them  from  the  organization. 

This  principle  of  co-ordinated  effort  maintained  by  disci- 
pline applies  to  every  combination  of  men  where  the 
maximum  efficiency  for  a  concrete  object  is  desired,  be  it  a 
business,  a  charity,  or  a  whole  state.  It  is  a  vitally  important 
principle  which  no  people  can  afford  to  lose  from  sight,  but 


LIBERTY  AND  DISCIPLINE  5 

it  is  not  everything.  Whether  it  conduces  to  the  greatest 
happiness  or  not  is  a  question  I  leave  on  one  side,  for  I  am 
now  discussing  only  effectiveness.  Yet  even  from  that 
standpoint  we  have  left  something  out  of  account.  The 
principle  would  be  absolutely  true  if  men  were  machines,  or 
if  the  thing  desired  were  always  a  concrete  object  to  be 
attained  by  co-operation,  such  as  the  building  of  a  railroad, 
the  production  of  wealth,  the  winning  of  victory  in  war  or 
on  a  playing  field.  But  men  are  human  beings  and  the 
progress  of  civilization  is  a  thing  far  too  complex  to  be  com- 
prised within  any  one  concrete  object  or  any  number  of  such 
objects  depending  on  combined  effort.  This  is  where  the 
advantages  of  liberty  come  in. 

Pasteur,  one  of  the  greatest  explorers  of  nature  and  bene- 
factors of  the  age,  remarked  that  the  value  of  liberty  lay  in 
its  enabling  every  man  to  put  forth  his  utmost  effort.  In 
France  under  the  ancient  monarchy  men  were  very  nearly 
born  to  trades  and  professions,  or  at  least  large  portions  of 
the  people  were  virtually  excluded  from  many  occupations. 
The  posts  of  officers  in  the  army  were  generally  reserved  for 
men  of  noble  rank.  The  places  of  judges  were  purchased, 
and  were  in  fact  largely  hereditary,  and  so  on  through  much 
of  the  higher  grade  of  employments.  The  Revolution  broke 
this  system  down,  and  Napoleon  insisted  that  the  true  prin- 
ciple of  the  French  Revolution  was  the  opening  of  all  careers 
to  talent ;  not  so  much  equality  as  freedom  of  opportunity. 
Under  any  system  of  compulsion  or  restraint  a  man  may  be 
limited  to  duties  unsuited  to  his  qualities,  so  that  he  cannot 
use  the  best  talents  he  possesses.  The  opportunities  in  a 
complex  modern  civilization  are  of  infinite  variety,  subtle, 
elastic,  incapable  of  being  compassed  by  fixed  regulations  for 
attaining  definite  objects.  The  best  plan  for  perfecting  the 
post  office,  if  strictly  followed,  would  not  have  produced  the 
telegraph;  the  most  excellent  organization  of  the  telegraph 
would  not  have  created  the  telephone;  the  most  elaborate 
system  of  telephone  wires  and  switchboards  would  not  have 


6  LIBERTY  AND  DISCIPLINE 

included  the  wireless.  The  greatest  contributions  to  knowl- 
edge, to  the  industrial  arts,  and  to  the  comforts  of  life  have 
been  unforeseen,  and  have  often  come  in  unexpected  direc- 
tions. The  production  of  these  required  something  more 
than  a  highly  efficient  organization  maintained  by  discipline. 

Moreover — what  is  nearer  to  our  present  purpose — 
believers  in  the  principle  of  liberty  assert  that  a  man  will  put 
forth  more  effort,  and  more  intelligent  effort,  if  he  chooses 
his  own  field,  and  works  in  his  own  way,  than  if  he  labors 
under  the  constant  direction  of  others.  The  mere  sense  of 
freedom  is  stimulating  in  a  high  degree  to  vigorous  natures. 
The  man  who  directs  himself  is  responsible  for  the  conse- 
quences. He  guarantees  the  result,  and  stakes  his  character 
and  reputation  on  it.  If  after  selecting  his  own  career  he 
finds  that  he  has  chosen  wrongly,  he  writes  himself  down  a 
fool.  The  theory  of  liberty,  then,  is  based  upon  the  belief 
that  a  man  is  usually  a  better  judge  of  his  own  aptitudes  than 
anyone  else  can  be,  and  that  he  will  put  forth  more  and 
better  effort  if  he  is  free  than  if  he  is  not. 

Both  these  principles,  of  discipline  and  of  liberty,  contain 
much  truth.  Neither  is  absolutely  true,  nor  can  be  carried  to 
its  logical  extreme,  for  one  by  subjecting  all  a  man's  actions 
to  the  control  of  a  master  would  lead  to  slavery,  the  other 
by  leaving  every  man  free  to  disregard  the  common  welfare 
would  lead  to  anarchy.  In  America  we  are  committed,  as  it 
were,  to  err  on  the  side  of  liberty;  and  it  is  my  purpose  to 
consider  here  what  are  the  dangers  and  conditions  of  liberty 
in  the  American  college.  It  is  in  college  that  young 
men  first  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  liberty  and  assume  its  respon- 
sibilities. They  sometimes  think  themselves  still  under  no 
little  restriction,  because  they  cannot  leave  the  college  during 
term  time  without  permission,  and  must  attend  the  lectures, 
examinations,  and  other  duties ;  but  these  are  slight  compared 
with  the  restraints  which  will  surround  any  busy  man  in  after 
life.  There  is  no  better  place  than  college  to  learn  to  use 
freedom  without  abusing  it.  This  is  one  of  the  greatest 


LIBERTY  AND  DISCIPLINE  7 

opportunities  of  college  life,  the  thing  that  makes  strong  men 
stronger  and  sometimes  weak  men  weaker  than  before. 

Liberty  means  a  freedom  of  choice  in  regulating  one's  con- 
duct. If  you  are  free  to  attend  a  lecture,  but  not  free  to 
stay  away  from  it,  then  it  is  compulsory.  You  have  no 
liberty  whatever  in  the  matter.  A  man  of  wealth  has  no 
freedom  about  paying  taxes.  He  is  obliged  to  pay  them. 
But  he  has  freedom  about  giving  money  away  to  relieve 
distress,  or  for  other  charitable  purposes,  because  he  may 
give  or  not  as  he  pleases.  A  man  is  at  liberty  to  be  generous 
or  mean,  to  be  kindly  or  selfish,  to  be  truthful  or  tricky,  to  be 
industrious  or  lazy.  In  all  these  things  his  duty  may  be 
clear,  but  he  is  free  to  disregard  it.  In  short,  liberty  means 
freedom  to  do  wrong  as  well  as  to  do  right,  else  it  is  no 
freedom  at  all.  It  means  freedom  to  be  foolish  as  well  as  to 
be  wise,  to  prefer  immediate  self-indulgence  to  future  benefit 
for  oneself  or  others,  liberty  to  neglect  as  well  as  to  perform 
the  duties  of  the  passing  hour  that  never  comes  again.  But 
if  liberty  were  used  exclusively  to  do  wrong,  it  would  be 
intolerable,  and  good  sense  would  sweep  it  from  the  earth. 
The  supposition  on  which  liberty  is  based,  the  condition  on 
which  it  exists,  is  that  men  will  use  it  for  right  more  than 
for  wrong;  that  in  the  long  run  they  will  do  right  more 
often,  and  do  more  that  is  good,  than  under  a  system 
of  restraint. 

Mark  this,  liberty  and  discipline  are  not  mutually  exclusive. 
Liberty  does  not  mean  that  good  results  can  ever  be  attained 
without  discipline.  If  rightly  used  it  means  only  that  regu- 
lation by  others  is  replaced  by  self-discipline  no  less  severe 
and  inexorable.  The  man  who  does  not  force  himself  to 
work  when  he  is  disinclined  to  do  so  will  never  achieve  any- 
thing worth  doing.  Some  really  industrious  men  affect  to 
do  only  what  they  like,  never  working  save  when  the  spirit 
moves  them;  and  occasionally  such  men  deceive  themselves 
in  trying  to  deceive  others.  If  not,  they  have  usually 
schooled  themselves  to  want  what  they  ought  to  want.  Self- 


8  LIBERTY  AND  DISCIPLINE 

discipline  has  brought  their  inclinations  as  well  as  their  con- 
duct into  a  happy  subjection  to  their  will.  But,  in  fact,  labor 
carried  anywhere  near  the  point  of  maximum  productivity, 
the  point  where  a  man  puts  forth  his  utmost  effort,  is  never 
wholly  pleasurable,  although  the  moral  force  required  to 
drive  oneself  at  top  speed  varies  much  in  different  people. 
An  idle  disposition,  however,  is  no  sufficient  excuse  for  shirk- 
ing. Many  years  ago  a  stingy  old  merchant  in  Boston  lay 
dying.  The  old  miser  turned  to  the  brother  sitting  by  his 
bedside  and  said:  "John,  I  wish  I  had  been  more  generous 
in  giving  away  money  in  my  life.  But  it  has  1)een  harder  for 
me  than  for  most  men  to  give  money ;  and,  John,  I  think  the 
Lord  will  make  allowance  for  differences  in  temperament." 
Thus  do  we  excuse  ourselves  for  self-indulgence. 

How  many  men  in  every  American  college  make  an  effort 
to  get  through  with  little  to  spare,  win  a  degree,  and  evade  an 
education?  Not  an  insignificant  number.  How  many 
strive  earnestly  to  put  forth  their  utmost  effort  to  obtain  an 
education  that  will  develop  their  intellectual  powers  to  the 
fullest  extent,  and  fit  them  in  the  highest  possible  degree  to 
cope  with  the  problems  they  will  face  as  men  and  as  citizens? 
Again  not  an  insignificant  number,  but  are  they  enough  to 
satisfy  Pasteur's  aspirations,  or  even  to  justify  his  idea  of 
the  object  of  liberty? 

Everywhere  in  the  higher  education  of  Europe,  whether 
the  system  is  one  of  freedom  or  restraint,  whether  as  in 
Germany  a  degree  is  conferred  only  on  men  who  have  real 
proficiency,  or  as  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge  a  mere  pass 
degree  is  given  for  very  little  real  work,  everywhere  the 
principle  of  competition  is  dominant  for  those  who  propose 
to  make  a  marked  success  in  life.  Let  us  take  the  countries 
which  claim  to  be  fighting  in  this  war  for  liberty.  A  student 
at  Oxford  or  Cambridge  knows  that  his  prospects,  not  only 
of  a  position  in  the  university,  but  at  the  bar,  in  permanent 
public  employment  and  political  life,  are  deeply  influenced 
by,  and  in  many  cases  almost  dependent  upon,  his  winning  a 


LIBERTY  AND  DISCIPLINE  9 

place  in  the  first  group  of  scholars  at  graduation.  The  man 
who  gets  it  plays  thereafter  with  loaded  dice.  It  gives  him 
a  marked  advantage  at  the  start,  and  to  some  extent  follows 
him  ever  afterwards.  Of  course,  there  are  exceptional  men 
who  by  ability  come  to  the  front  rank  without  it,  but  on  the 
whole  they  are  surprisingly  few.  Mr.  Balfour  is  sometimes 
referred  to  as  a  man  who  did  not  distinguish  himself  at 
Cambridge,  and  Sir  Edward  Grey  is  said  to  have  been  an 
incorrigibly  poor  scholar  at  Balliol  in  Oxford,  yet  both  of 
them  won  third-class  honors,  which  is  not  far  from  what  we 
should  consider  4>  B  K  rank.  To  mention  only  men  who 
have  been  prominent  in  public  life,  Peel,  Cardwell,  Sher- 
brooke,  Gladstone,  Harcourt,  Bryce,  Trevelyan,  Asquith, 
Haldane,  Milner,  Simon,  Ambassador  Spring-Rice,  and 
many  more  won  honors  of  the  first  class  at  one  of  the  two 
great  English  universities;  while  a  number  of  other  men 
distinguished  in  public  life,  such  as  Disraeli,  Chamberlain, 
and  Lloyd-George,  did  not  go  to  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  It 
would  not  be  difficult  to  add  a  long  list  of  judges,  and  in  fact, 
as  an  Oxford  man  once  remarked  to  me,  high  honors  at  the 
university  have  been  almost  a  necessity  for  reaching  the 
bench.  No  doubt  the  fact  that  men  have  achieved  distinction 
at  their  universities  is  a  test  of  their  ability;  but  also  the 
fact  that  they  have  done  so  is  a  direct  help  at  the  outset  of 
their  careers. 

If  we  turn  to  France  we  find  the  same  principle  of  compe- 
tition in  a  direct  form  though  working  in  other  channels. 
The  Ecole  Centrale,  the  great  school  of  engineering,  and 
the  Beaux  Arts,  the  great  school  of  architecture  and  art, 
admit  only  a  limited  number  of  students  by  competitive 
examination;  and  the  men  who  obtain  the  highest  prizes  at 
graduation  are  guaranteed  public  employment  for  life. 
Europeans  believe  that  pre-eminence  in  those  things  for 
which  higher  education  exists  is  a  measure  of  intellectual  and 
moral  qualities;  and  the  fact  that  it  is  recognized  as  such 
tends  to  make  it  so,  for  the  rewards  attached  to  it  make 


10  LIBERTY  4ND  DISCIPLINE 

ambitious  and  capable  young  men  strive  for  it,  and  put  forth 
their  utmost  effort  in  the  competition.  Let  us  hope  that 
some  day  our  colleges,  and  the  public  at  large,  will  recognize 
more  fully  than  they  do  to-day  the  value  of  excellence  in 
college  work  as  a  measure  of  capacity,  as  a  promise  of  future 
achievement,  and  thereby  draw  out  more  effort  among  the 
undergraduates.  It  is  already  the  case  to  a  large  extent  in 
our  professional  schools,  and  ought  to  be  the  case  in  our 
colleges,  if  a  college  education  is  really  worth  the  money  and 
labor  expended  on  it. 

At  present  the  college  is  scholastically  democratic.  The 
world  rarely  asks  how  a  man  got  in,  or  how  he  graduated. 
It  is  enough  that  he  did  graduate  somehow.  Bachelor 
degrees,  whether  indicating  high  scholarship  or  a  minimum 
of  work,  are  treated  by  the  public  as  free  and  equal;  and 
what  is  worse  they  are  far  too  much  so  treated  by  the  colleges 
and  universities  themselves.  Now,  the  requirement  for  a 
college  degree  cannot  be  more  than  a  minimum,  and  in  the 
nature  of  things  a  rather  low  minimum,  requiring  on  the 
part  of  men  with  more  than  ordinary  ability  a  very  small 
amount  of  work;  far  less  than  is  needed  to  call  forth  their 
utmost  effort. 

This  is  one  of  many  illustrations  of  the  well-known  fact 
that  education  moves  slowly,  and  follows  rather  than  leads 
the  spirit  of  the  time.  We  live  in  a  strenuous  age,  a  time 
of  activity  and  energy.  I  think  it  was  Bagehot  who 
remarked  that  the  change  of  habits  was  evident  even  in  the 
casual  greeting  of  friends.  He  says  that  we  ask  a  man 
whom  we  have  not  rnet  for  some  time,  "What  have  you  been 
doing  since  I  saw  you  last?"  as  if  we  expected  him  to  have 
been  doing  something.  I  remember  some  time  ago  reading 
a  story  in  a  magazine  about  travellers  in  a  railroad  train,  who 
were  stopped  at  a  custom  house  to  have  their  baggage  exam- 
ined, and  found  that,  instead  of  holding  clothes,  their  bags 
and  trunks  contained  the  works  they  had  done  in  life.  It 
was  the  last  judgment,  and  several  well-meaning  persons 


LIBERTY  AND  DISCIPLINE  11 

found  their  many  pieces  of  luggage  sadly  empty.  A  gen- 
tleman among  the  number  came  forward  to  explain  that 
they  had  supposed  their  duty  to  consist  in  avoiding  sin,  and 
they  had  done  so ;  that  their  lives  had  been  spent  in  pleasures, 
for  the  most  part  wholly  innocent,  and  that  this  was  all  they 
had  understood  to  be  required  of  them. 

The  story  illustrates  a  change  of  attitude  which  has  come 
over  the  world,  and  men  who  have  passed  fifty  have  seen  it 
come  in,  comparing  the  generation  that  went  before  them 
with  that  which  has  followed  them.  Thou  shalt  is  quite  as 
important  as  thou  shalt  not.  Professor  Munro  in  speaking 
in  a  college  chapel  some  time  ago  on  the  importance  of 
positive  as  well  as  negative  morality  remarked  that  most 
people  if  asked  the  meaning  of  the  fourth  commandment 
would  think  only  of  its  forbidding  work  on  Sunday ;  whereas 
its  opening  words  are  "Six  days  shalt  thou  labor."  We  live 
not  only  in  a  strenuous  world,  but  in  the  most  strenuous  part 
of  the  world.  Innocent  leisure  is  no  longer  quite  respectable 
here,  except  in  college ;  and  it  is  getting  not  to  be  respectable 
there — except  in  study. 

Most  of  us  feel  that  the  American  college  is  a  very 
precious  thing.  It  is  a  clean  and  healthy  place,  morally, 
intellectually,  and  physically.  I  believe  that  no  large  body 
of  young  men  anywhere  in  the  world  live  on  the  whole  such 
clean  lives,  or  are  cleaner  or  more  honorable  in  thought. 
The  college  is  a  place  where  a  man  may,  and  where  many  a 
man  does,  develop  his  character  and  his  mental  force  to  an 
almost  indefinite  extent;  where  he  may,  and  often  does, 
acquire  an  inspiration  that  sustains  him  through  life ;  where 
he  is  surrounded  by  influences  that  fit  him,  if  he  will  follow 
them,  for  all  that  is  best  in  the  citizen  of  a  republic.  The 
chief  defect  in  the  American  college  to-day  is  that  it  has  not 
yet  been  stirred  by  the  strenuous  spirit  of  the  age,  the  spirit 
that  dignifies  the  principle  of  liberty;  or  at  least  it  has  been 
stirred  mainly  in  the  line  of  what  are  called  student  activities. 
These  are  excellent  things  in  themselves,  to  be  encouraged  in 


12  LIBERTY  AND  DISCIPLINE 

full  measure,  but  they  do  not  make  up  for  indolence  and  lack 
of  effort  in  the  studies  which  are,  after  all,  the  justification 
for  the  existence  of  the  college.  Let  us  put  this  matter  per- 
fectly plainly.  The  good  sense  of  the  community  would 
never  approve  of  having  young  men  devote  the  whole  of 
their  best  four  years  to  the  playing  field,  or  to  those  other 
accessories  of  college  life,  the  management  of  athletic  or 
other  organizations,  or  writing  for  college  papers.  These, 
as  I  have  said,  are  excellent  as  accessories,  but  if  they  were 
the  whole  thing,  if  instruction  and  study  were  abolished,  the 
college  would  soon  be  abolished  also.  What,  then,  in  a  land 
of  restless  activity  and  energy  is  likely  to  be  the  future  of  a 
college  in  which  a  large  part  of  the  undergraduates  regard 
extra-curriculum  activities  as  the  main  interest,  and  edu- 
cation as  an  accessory;  and  where  a  smaller,  but  not  incon- 
siderable fraction  regard  all  activity  as  irksome?  If  our 
young  men  cannot  answer  that  question  themselves,  let  them 
ask  some  man  who  is  not  himself  a  college  graduate  but  has 
worked  his  way  up  in  the  world  by  his  diligence,  perseverance, 
pluck,  and  force  of  character. 

The  danger  that  under  a  system  of  liberty  men  will  fail 
to  put  forth  their  utmost  effort  lies  not  merely,  or  perhaps 
mainly,  in  a  lack  of  moral  force.  It  is  due  quite  as  much  to 
a  lack  of  moral  and  intellectual  vision,  an  inability  to  see  any 
valuable  result  to  be  accomplished  by  the  effort.  This  is 
particularly  true  in  college.  Many  a  man  who  intends  to 
work  hard  thereafter  in  his  profession  or  business,  tries  to  get 
through  college  with  a  small  amount  of  study.  He  is  fully 
aware  that  in  his  future  career  he  will  make  no  use  of  a 
knowledge  of  the  force  of  the  Greek  aorist,  of  the  properties 
of  a  regular  parallelepipedon,  or  of  the  effect  of  the  reign 
of  Edward  the  First  on  English  constitutional  history;  and 
hence  he  is  inclined  to  think  these  things  of  no  great  practical 
consequence  to  him.  In  no  form  of  human  productivity  of 
far-reaching  importance  is  the  direct  practical  utility  of 
every  step  in  the  process  visible  to  the  man  who  takes  it. 


LIBERTY  AND  DISCIPLINE  13 

The  workman  in  a  factory  may  not  know  why  he  mixes 
certain  ingredients  in  prescribed  proportions,  why  he  heats 
the  mixture  to  a  certain  temperature,  or  why  he  cools  it 
slowly.  It  might  be  difficult  to  explain  it  to  him;  and  he 
does  these  things  because  they  are  ordered  by  the  boss. 

The  difficulty  of  perceiving  the  connection  between  the 
means  and  the  end  is  greater  in  the  case  of  education,  as 
distinguished  from  mechanical  training,  than  in  almost  any- 
thing else,  because  the  processes  are  more  subtle,  more  intan- 
gible, less  capable  of  accurate  analysis.  In  fact  the  raw 
material  that  is  being  worked  up  is  not  the  subject  matter 
of  the  work  but  the  mind  of  the  worker  himself;  and  the 
effect  on  his  mind  is  not  from  day  to  day  perceptible.  His 
immediate  task  is  to  learn  something,  and  he  asks  himself 
whether  it  is  really  worth  learning ;  whereas  the  knowledge 
he  acquires  is  not  of  the  first  importance,  the  vital  question 
being  how  much  he  has  improved  in  the  ability  to  acquire 
and  use  it.  At  school  the  process  is  equally  obscure,  but  the 
boy  learns  his  lessons  because  he  is  obliged  to  do  so.  If  he 
is  a  good  boy  he  learns  them  well,  because,  although  blind  to 
the  meaning  of  it  all,  he  knows  it  is  his  duty.  He  does  not 
seek  to  understand  the  process ;  and  I  recall  now  with  amuse- 
ment the  ridiculous  attempts  we  sometimes  made  in  our 
school  days  to  explain  to  our  girl  friends  why  it  was  worth 
while  to  study  Latin.  Many  a  boy  who  has  ranked  high  at 
school,  without  asking  himself  the  use  of  studying  at  all,  does 
little  work  in  college,  because  he  asks  himself  why  he  should 
make  the  effort  and  cannot  answer  the  question.  The  con- 
trast illustrates  the  difference  between  a  system  of  discipline 
and  one  of  liberty.  In  both  the  relation  of  the  work  of  the 
day  and  the  result  to  be  attained  is  invisible,  but  the  motive 
power  is  not  the  same. 

Under  a  system  of  external  discipline  the  motive  power  is 
supplied  by  the  habit  of  obedience,  enforced  where  necessary 
by  penalties.  For  the  good  man  the  habit  or  duty  of  blind 
obedience  is  enough.  As  Colonel  Mudge  expressed  it  when 


14  LIBERTY  AND  DISCIPLINE 

he  received  a  mistaken  order  to  charge  and  sprang  forward 
to  lead  his  regiment  at  Gettysburg,  "It  is  murder,  but  it  is 
the  order."  Some  of  the  greatest  examples  of  heroism  in 
human  history  have  been  given  in  this  way.  But  blind 
obedience  cannot  be  the  motive  power  where  liberty  applies, 
and  a  man  must  determine  his  own  conduct  for  himself.  In 
the  vast  number  of  actions  where  the  direct  utility  of  each 
step  cannot  be  seen,  he  must  act  on  general  principles,  on  a 
conviction  that  the  particular  step  is  part  of  a  long  process 
which  leads  forward  to  the  end.  The  motive  power  of 
liberty  is  faith.  All  great  enterprises,  all  great  lives,  are 
built  upon  and  sustained  by  an  overmastering  faith  in 
something. 

Faith  is  based  upon  imagination  which  can  conceive  things 
the  eye  cannot  behold.  Young  people  are  prone  to  think  of 
imagination  as  fantastic,  the  creation  by  the  mind  of 
impossible  forms  and  events,  distortions  of  nature,  or  cari- 
catures of  man.  But  it  is  a  higher  imagination  which 
pictures  invisible  things  as  they  are,  or  as  they  might  really 
be.  Historic  imagination  does  not  people  the  past  with 
impossible  beings  doing  senseless  acts,  but  with  living  men 
who  thought  and  acted  as  men  do  not  think  and  act  to-day, 
but  actually  did  under  conditions  that  have  long  passed 
away.  The  true  reformer  is  not  he  who  portrays  an  ideal 
commonwealth  which  could  never  be  made  to  work,  but  the 
man  whose  imagination  has  such  a  grasp  on  the  springs  of 
human  nature  that  he  can  foresee  how  people  would  really 
conduct  themselves  in  conditions  yet  untried,  and  whose 
plans  work  out  as  he  designed  them. 

If  faith  is  thus  based  upon  imagination,  its  fruition 
requires  a  steadfastness  of  purpose  that  is  not  weakened  by 
discouragements  or  turned  aside  by  obstacles  that  shut  out 
the  view  and  cast  dark  shadows  across  the  path.  The 
doubter,  who  asks  himself  at  every  stage  whether  the  imme- 
diate effort  is  really  worth  while,  is  lost.  Prophesy 
confidently  of  him  that  he  will  never  reach  his  goal. 


LIBERTY  AND  DISCIPLINE  15 

President  Pritchett  in  a  walking  tour  in  Switzerland  asked 
a  mountaineer  about  the  road  to  the  place  whither  he  was 
bound.  The  man  replied  that  he  had  never  been  there,  but 
he  knew  that  was  the  path  which  led  to  it.  Such  is  the 
pathway  to  the  ventures  of  life.  None  of  us  has  ever  been 
over  the  road  we  intend  to  travel  in  the  world.  If  we  believe 
that  the  way  we  take  leads  to  our  destination  we  must  follow 
it,  not  stopping  or  turning  back  because  a  curve  in  the  moun- 
tain trail  obscures  the  distant  scene,  or  does  not  at  the 
moment  seem  to  lead  in  the  right  direction.  We  must  go 
on  in  faith  that  every  step  along  the  road  brings  us  nearer, 
and  that  the  faster  we  walk  the  farther  we  shall  go  before 
night  falls  upon  us.  The  man  who  does  not  feel  any  reason 
for  effort  because  he  cannot  see  the  direct  utility  of  the  things 
he  learns  has  no  faith  in  a  college  education ;  and  if  he  has  no 
faith  in  it  he  had  better  not  waste  time  on  it,  but  take  up 
something  else  that  he  has  faith  in,  or  that  is  better  suited  to 
men  of  little  faith. 

Every  form  of  civilization  is,  not  only  at  its  inception  and 
in  critical  times,  but  always  and  forever,  on  trial.  If  it 
proves  less  effective  than  others  it  will  be  eliminated,  peace- 
fully or  forcibly,  by  a  gradual  process  of  change  or  by  a 
catastrophe.  Now  the  test  of  a  civilization  based  on  liberty 
is  the  use  men  make  of  the  liberty  they  enjoy,  and  it  is  a 
failure  not  only  if  men  use  it  to  do  wrong,  but  also  if  they 
use  it  to  do  nothing,  or  as  little  as  is  possible  to  maintain 
themselves  in  personal  comfort.  This  is  true  of  our  institu- 
tions as  a  whole  and  of  the  American  college  in  particular. 
A  student  who  has  no  sustaining  faith  in  the  education  he  can 
get  there ;  who  will  not  practise  the  self-discipline  needed  to 
obtain  it;  who  uses  his  liberty  to  put  forth  not  his  utmost, 
but  the  least  possible,  effort;  who  uses  it  not  to  acquire,  but 
to  evade,  a  thorough  education,  fails  to  that  extent  in  his 
duty  to  himself,  to  his  college,  to  his  country,  and  to  the 
civilization  he  inherits.  The  man  who  uses  his  liberty  to  put 
forth  his  utmost  effort  in  coll etv  r"  !  hroughout  his  life,  not 


16  LIBERTY  AND  DISCIPLINE 

only  does  his  duty,  but  is  helping  to  make  freedom  itself 
successful.  He  is  working  for  a  great  principle  of  human 
progress.  He  is  fighting  the  battle  of  liberty  and  securing 
its  victory  in  the  civilization  of  mankind. 

Never  have  I  been  able  to  understand — and  even  less  than 
ever  in  these  terrible  days,  when  young  men,  on  whom  the 
future  shone  bright  with  hope,  sacrifice  from  a  sense  of  duty 
their  lives,  the  welfare  of  those  dearest  to  them,  and  every- 
thing they  care  for — less  than  ever  can  I  understand  how 
any  man  can  stand  in  safety  on  a  hillside  and  watch  the 
struggle  of  life  in  the  plain  below  without  longing  to  take 
part  therein;  how  he  can  see  the  world  pass  by  without  a 
craving  to  make  his  mark,  however  small,  on  his  day  and 
generation.  Many  a  man  who  would  be  eager  to  join  a 
deadly  charge  if  his  country  were  at  war,  lacks  the  insight 
or  imagination  to  perceive  that  the  warfare  of  civilization  is 
waged  not  more  upon  the  battlefield  than  in  the  workshop, 
at  the  desk,  in  the  laboratory,  and  the  library.  We  have 
learned  in  this  stress  of  nations  that  men  cannot  fight  without 
ammunition  well  made  in  abundance ;  but  we  do  not  see  that 
the  crucial  matter  in  civilization  is  the  preparedness  of  young 
men  for  the  work  of  the  world ;  not  only  an  ample  supply 
of  the  best  material,  but  a  product  moulded  on  the  best 
pattern,  tempered  and  finished  to  the  highest  point  of  per- 
fection. Is  this  the  ideal  of  a  dreamer  that  cannot  be 
realized;  or  is  it  a  vision  which  young  men  will  see  and  turn 
to  a  virile  faith? 


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